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Before I start I should note that I prepared this without a variable temperature kettle because I brought this to work. So, it may have been steeped incorrectly. It wasn’t the smartest choice for work tea, but at least I remembered tea. I did not remember food.

This oolong is much lighter and greener than I apparently prefer my oolongs. In all fairness, the employee at The Northern Lights Tea Company told me this would be too green for me based on what I told her about my preferences and she was right. Props to TNLTC for having a very knowledgeable and friendly employee. I don’t know why I didn’t listen to her. This tea just sounded cool.

There’s a little bit of that characteristic oolong flavor (that I love so much) to start out, but that is followed up by grassy notes with an almost green been flavor behind them. The sip finishes with a slight astringency, but it’s not too bad at all. This oolong is more like a green tea cross dressing as an oolong. Not my favorite, but if you prefer greener oolongs I think it’d be quite nice. I won’t rate it since I’m the first reviewer and it’s not really to my taste.

My lovely friend, whom we call Lucky because he was sick of Americans butchering his name, brought this back to me from his last trip home to Mumbai. I am guessing that it is a CTC? I’ve only seen one CTC and this tea looks like that; more granular than leafy. It certainly is bold with the base really shining through while the spices just round out the background, which I LOVE. The base is quite malty, somewhat chocolatey, and smooth and bold at the same time if that is possible. It really does take center stage at the beginning of the sip while the spices pop up more at the end, with the cardamon and cloves dominating the cinnamon and ginger. I like this better than any chai blend I’ve ever had. Is this even a chai? I have no idea what this is but I like it. Also, there were no brewing suggestions, so I’m flying blind here.

I can’t taste the rooibos; bonus! The cinnamon sure takes care of that. It’s not too much though (which would be my usual complaint) because it has a sweetness to it. I did add sugar and foamed milk to make a latte because it is a chai after all, but it tastes like those red hot candies to me. It’s pretty good!

And thus ends my David’s Tea tasting odyssey brought to me by the über generous Virginia. Thank you so much for sending me 41 teas to try! I’ve had a great time trying all of them and have learned a lot as well :-).

Now this is more like it, Davids Tea. This is a tisane I can get behind. Many chunks of fruit? Check. Pretty pink brew? Check. Bright fruity flavor? Check. It reminds me of a fruit punch fruit snack in the best possible way. Not surprisingly, it has a strong guava profile (strong enough to handle the hibiscus and the rose hips) with some apple detail. Mmm mmm good. Thank you Virginia for introducing me to so many great fruity tisanes that I NEED for the summer :-).

I say NAY to this tea. NAY! I guess lemongrass is just not for me in teas. It makes teas/tisanes taste like floor cleaner…oily floor cleaner. No thank you. But also thank you to Virginia for helping me discover this about my palate.

This tea smelled completely amazing! The taste was almost what the smell led me to believe it would be, but not quite. I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a star fruit or a jack fruit tastes like so I can’t tell you if this tea is true to the flavors it claims. However, I can tell you that this tea is light, fruity, tropical, and very refreshing. It’s a great summer tea IMHO! I might try to cold brew the leftover leaf. Thanks for sharing, Virginia!

Edit: This is MAGICAL cold brewed. Trust me and just go ahead an cold brew this if you have some.

This tea is refreshing! The list of spices in here made me highly skeptical…fennel and licorice root? No thank you. However, all the spices work together really well in this tea! I’m not really tasting any of them individually but they provide complexity and tone down the mint so it doesn’t assault the senses like a plain mint tea. I’m really enjoying how often Virginia is proving me wrong when I tell her I don’t like things :-)

I’ve been drinking hot tea all day, so I thought I’d take a matcha break! The first time I tried this, I thought the flavor was too light for my liking. So, this time I used 3/4 tsp rather than the recommended 1/2 tsp. It tastes….exactly the same lol. The level of chocolate taste is like a very weak chocolate milk. I’d definitely order robust if I were to order this one.

This tea has actual pieces of popcorn in it and you can totally tell by the taste. It seriously tastes just like movie popcorn! I’m mainly tasting buttery popcorn goodness and I’m not getting the caramel or apple notes. Maybe this is because I didn’t add any sugar? Regardless, I’m not mad about it. I like it very much just the way it is. Thanks for sending this my way, Virginia!

Thanks to Virginia for another lovely jasmine tea! This one is more bold than the Butterfly Jasmine (Davids Tea as well). Both the jasmine flavor and the green tea base are stronger in this one. The green tea is still gentle with no astringency. I still prefer Verdant’s White Yunnan Jasmine.